Football hub, tennis centre and velodrome at Kallang Alive
The Singapore Sports Hub, with its 55,000-capacity stadium centrepiece, ringed by the OCBC Aquatic Centre and the OCBC Arena, is already a remarkable hive of activity.
Soon, it will be joined by a mini-hub in the vicinity, transforming the already vibrant Kallang area into an even more attractive destination for sports and entertainment.
By 2025 in the Kallang Alive precinct, the area around the Sports Hub, Singaporeans can look forward to a first velodrome, a new tennis centre, a football hub and a speed climbing wall, revealed Sport Singapore in a media briefing yesterday to announce 15 recommendations from its Vision 2030 masterplan review.
The Kallang Alive precinct is part of the Urban Redevelopment Authority's plans to rejuvenate the Kallang River over the next 20 years.
SportSG said that it was in consultation with other agencies to explore the redevelopment of the Kallang Theatre into an integrated sport, entertainment and lifestyle centre.
Chief executive Lim Teck Yin said that several parties, such as concert and sports promoters, hoteliers, real-estate developers and medical companies, had already expressed an interest.
In May, he told The New Paper that the Kallang Football Hub, comprising several fields, will be up and running in October.
Plans are also in place for the waterfront space along Jalan Benaan Kapal to become a green community space, while another project, called the Alive Gateway and Loop, will tie in key attractions via a walking and cycling path which links to the Park Connector Network.
SportSG will also be looking into a collaboration with the National Youth Council for a Youth Hub, which may feature new and extreme sports facilities for speed climbing and parkour.
Deputy chief executive Chiang Hock Woon, who led the large part of the briefing yesterday, explained to The New Paper, the rationale for the new development.
He said: "The Kallang Alive precinct is very exciting from the standpoint that it is an opportunity for us to really re-imagine what this space can bring.
"And in that regard, it is important that we create an environment where different generations and different segments of our population can come and enjoy the space.
"We would like to engage the youth in this endeavour to find out from them exactly what excites them.
"Indicatively, we know that they wanted something a little more dynamic, something that really helps them to stir their interest and imagination."
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